Cat5 Limitations

[Guest]

I am trying to complete a connection of two networks both running netBEUI and TCP/IP for Broadband access on the win98 OS! The problem arises that the networks are seperated by approx 320 feet or so! I am aware of the 100m limitation for cat5 between workstation and hub and the 5m rule between hubs! Both networks need hubs as one network runs 6 workstations and the other network runs just two workstation with the entrypoint for the broadband therefore a cable modem is now in the mix! The Cat5 has been in place between these two networks for a year now which was placed underground and is now just being implemented. First, how do I get past the cat5 limitation with what is already in place? Is this possible? Can I amplify the signal? Secondly, how do I get this all to work with considering I will need to connect hubs between these locations (will a switch help)? And not to mention a router thrown in as most PC's would like to share the broadband connection! What is the answer - Please someone help me!!

Kyle

 

[Guest]

Well... the limitation is 100m (300 feet) but you should be able to squeak by at 320'. It's not really a limitation, but more of a guide. Hopefully it's good quality cat 5 and the ends are terminated properly (568A or 568B standards). Otherwise, you'll have to use a hub/switch (no difference really in this situation) somewhere in between the two networks (you can have up to 4 hubs between the pc's you're trying to connect to make a network 1200' apart basically.). Is it a 100Mb/s network or 10/100? At that distance, 100 might be hard to obtain, but not impossible (depends on the sources of interference on that long run of cat5 and again, it's quality).

There is no minimum between hubs and PCs/hubs. I'd use 1m for hub to hub (to make it easier to move things around) but you could use 1' if you'd like with no adverse effects.

There aren't any amplifiers/repeaters available for ethernet (thinnet has that, but you don't want to go there).

I'm guessing that your cat 5 run should work just fine. You'll have one little 'network' (a hub and a few PCs) at location A, from the hub at location A you'll have the long cat5 run which will go into a hub at location B (another setup of PCs connected to the hub at B). Location B for instance can have the broadband connection. From the broadband modem (it's really a router), you'll go into another router (a connection sharing one like the Linksys DSL/Cable router available for about $100 USD) which will then go to the hub at location B. I'm assuming both 'networks' at location A and B are really on the same IP addressing scheme (really the same network then). This will make things much easier, and all they'll have to do is point their gateway to the Linksys broadband router for their internet access. And they'll still be able to access each other for file/printer sharing.

Viola!

If you want, e-mail me and I can draw a diagram if you'd like (sometimes a good schematic helps envision these things). (god.tm@geek.com)